'Lance Armstrong Can Still Do A Lot For Sport' Says Travis Tygart

Two years ago cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France wins for taking performance-enhancing drugs. DW spoke to US anti-doping boss Travis Tygart, who was involved in the story from the start.

DW: Do you think that the catching and punishing of Lance Armstrong has forced athletes since then to sit up and take notice?



Travis Tygart: I think exposing the fraud and the drug-infested culture back then, which involved a lot of athletes - including Lance Armstrong - sent a loud and powerful message that clean athlete's rights are important. The change at the top [of cycling], with the president, the general counsel and the secretary general all being removed, because of their failure to oversee a clean culture and then respond after the dirty culture was presented to them, sends a warning to other sport leaders. But it also sends a powerful message to clean athletes that we - anti-doping organizations like USADA, NADA and WADA - are here for them and we are going to fight the battles with them.



Hopefully that convinces and persuades them to do things the right way. But it also tells them that, if they don't, they are going to be caught and exposed.



Still, there are people that accuse you of a sort of witch hunt against Armstrong. What would you say to those allegations?



Well, the facts are entirely different and don't support claims like that. If you go back to June 2012, we gave Lance Armstrong the same opportunity as anyone else to come in and be part of the solution. Look at the press release we did that day: we called on the sport to do a truth and reconciliation process. This was so the US team could be held accountable, a team which also included foreign riders, and also so other teams in the peloton at the time, who also participated in pretty sophisticated doping, could also be held accountable. So, us giving Armstrong the opportunity to come in, us meeting with him in December [of that year]: those are the accurate facts which dispel any sort of personal witchhunt or vendetta.



Let's not forget, he had the opportunity to contest all the evidence in front of judges, not USADA. Those judges would have levied whatever sanction then went into place. Armstrong, on the advice of his counsel, voluntarily withdrew a challenge to that evidence and accepted a lifetime ban. He could have gone and not even testified. He could have just challenged the sanction that went into place. So, if there was ever any belief that it was unfair or was not consistent with the other cases, there was a legal opportunity for that to be challenged, and that was not chosen.



Have the two of you ever been in contact since?



Yes, and we are hopeful that he comes in to see us and does the right thing. I think there is a lot of good that Lance Armstrong can still do for sport but also, obviously, the cancer community around the world. We hope it will happen, but we know it's a process. We know that the first step is usually the hardest. But, just like Tyler [Hamilton], just like Floyd [Landis], we hope that he will get through the process and come in. We're not waiting on the moment, but we will certainly embrace it if he decides to finally do it.



A new international anti-doping code is due to come into force next year meaning Germany's national anti-doping agency will have to take over drug testing, which it previously left to domestic sporting associations. How does this work in the US and do you think it helps avoid conflicts of interest?



Yes it does help to maintain independence, on a practical level. We started doing this in the US ever since we began to exist as an organization, at the end of the year 2000. In the beginning, from 2001 to say, 2005, the sports associations weren't too happy about us doing the testing and they complained. But now, if I speak to any of the bosses of US sporting associations, they always tell me how thankful they are that we have taken over the job of drug testing.



In the USA many of these sports associations didn't have the expertise to do the investigating that they should have, and they didn't test for the right things. This way, sports organizers can concentrate on what they are good at: hosting sports events and getting fans into stadiums.



Travis Tygart has been the CEO of the US anti-doping agency, USADA, since September 2007. Tygart has since been recognized by magazine Sports Illustrated as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Sports.